*Tweet: ERC and CUP pledge to take the voting boxes to the streets and stage a big mobilisation on Nov 9

Pressure mounts on Catalonia’s president Artur Mas as ERC, IC-V and CUP, the Catalan parties that support a referendum on independence –along with governing CiU– insist that a popular consultation needs to be held on November 9 in lack of a legal, state-sanctioned alternative. The Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy has put in place all necessary measures to get the Constitutional Court to ban the “participatory process” as the Catalan government branded it [Vilaweb | Spanish government aims to challenge the new independence vote].

Marta Rovira (ERC), Dolors Camats (ICV) and Quim Arrufat (CUP) coincide in the opinion that it is impossible, from a legal point of view, to impeach the participatory process called for November 9, and they have asked the president Artur Mas “not to give in at the first opportunity”. “On November 9 we need to take to the streets in a show of force”, said ERC’s secretary general Marta Rovira. – Ara | ERC, ICV i la CUP demanen al Govern que mantingui el 9-N alternatiu tot i el veto de l’Estat [Catalan]

Also, Catalonia’s National Alliance for Self-Determination, which brings together more than 3,000 civil society, business and political organisations, gave its support to the alternative referendum:

Associations and organisations within the National Alliance for Self-Determination have approved a resolution by which they all commit to promote “participation and mobilisation” on the 9th of November and in the alternative consultation vote scheduled on that day. […] The text approved emphasises the “political pluralism” of the associations and organisations included in the National Alliance. They insisted on the need to preserve such political pluralism while coordinating their efforts with civil society, as “as the only way to decide a collective future is through participating and voting”. Furthermore, the Alliance emphasised “the need to exercise the right to self-determination in order to face the real problems of citizens in economic and social matters, and in the defence of the Welfare State”. – CNA | National Alliance for Self-Determination to work on making alternative consultation vote on November 9’s a success